A Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals judge has likened a female-only policy at a Washington state spa to segregationist “whites-only” policies during a hearing on Monday.
The Christian Korean-owned Olympus Spa, which limits services to “biological females,” is challenging a discrimination complaint filed by Washington’s Human Rights Commission in 2020. The complaint followed the spa’s refusal to serve a transgender-identifying biological male patron who had not undergone sex-reassignment surgery.
Judge M. Margaret McKeown compared the spa’s policy to racial segregation, stating, “If you have a law that says ‘White applicants only,’ this is ‘biological women entrance only.’ It seems to me they’re quite parallel there.”
“You can’t have ‘White people only’ come into my restaurant, and then you say, ‘Well, no, we have a religious, spiritual nature to our restaurant, and when you get there, we serve you special food.’ This seems quite different,” she added.
According to a report by conservative radio host Jason Rantz that cited court documents, the spa does not allow transgender women unless they have undergone “post-operative sex confirmation surgery.” The spa has maintained that the policy is “essential for the safety, legal protection, and well-being of our customers.” One of the services provided by the business is a nude body scrub, and the spa owners have emphasized that their religious beliefs dictate only married men and women should be unclothed with one another.
“It is the spa’s position that the women sharing in this cultural and spiritual experience have associational and free exercise rights,” said the spa’s attorney Kevin Snider on Monday.
McKeown pushed back on Snider’s framing, claiming the policy excludes transgender women rather than welcoming biological women, framing it as discriminatory.
“It’s not really ‘biological women are welcome,’” McKeown argued. “It means nonbiological women are not welcome. I mean, that’s the reality.”
